“For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ…”(2 Cor 10.3-5, ESV)

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Luther on Hurricanes (and Trusting God)

By no deliberate choice of my own, I read the following words from Dr. Luther the morning after Hurricane Ike had ravaged our part of the world between Galveston and Houston. In fact, while reading this, the wind was still blowing, our roof was still leaking, and shingles occasionally left their happy abode on our roof and drifted to the ground. Writing on Matthew 6, Luther says:

We can’t seem to let go of our anxieties and worries as long as we live. Yet God gives us everything we need hour by hour, without needing any assistance from us. So why do we keep on having foolish fears and anxieties about trivial little needs, as though God can’t or won’t supply us with food and shelter? We should hang our heads in shame when people point out this foolishness to us. Yet foolish is the only way to describe those rich, well-fed people who are always worried about having a full pantry. They have plenty of food on hand to serve nourishing meals, but they never share a meal with anyone or invite dinner guests. They have empty beds but never ask anyone to spend the night.

Accordingly, Christ is plainly telling us what foolish people we are. It should be enough to make us want to spit on ourselves in utter disgust. Still, we continue to grope along in our blindness, even though it’s obvious that we’re incapable of providing for our basic needs without God. This alone should be enough to make us Christians and to keep this thought in mind: ‘Undoubtedly, I never held in my own hands even one fleeting moment of my life. If I must trust God for my very life and limb, why should I worry about how I’m going to find nourishment from day to day?’ Not trusting God for our daily needs is like having a wealthy father who is willing to lavish thousands of dollars on us, yet not being able to trust him for money in an emergency.
(from Faith Alone: A Daily Devotional / LW 21:195)

There have been only a few times in my nearly 35 years when I have been totally conscious of my utter dependence upon God “hour by hour” for not only ‘the big things’ but for my very existence. The evening Ike made landfall and plowed up Galveston Bay was one of those times. For the span of what seemed like days, the wind howled in anger, rain pounded our house trying (not entirely in vain) to get inside, trees bent over prostrate in deference to the tempest, and shingles beat continually against the roof before their silence betrayed their absence. The experience was a twelve-hour long total sensory overload intensified by the fact that it all occurred at night, which denied me the ability to see what was happening as it also denied me the ability to sleep for almost 40 hours.

It has been years since I have been acutely aware that, “Undoubtedly, I never held in my own hands even one fleeting moment of my life.” If you have never been in such a situation, be it from disaster, combat, illness, accident, etc., unfortunately I can neither adequately describe it to you nor can you truly completely comprehend (beyond theological or mental assent) the truth of Luther’s statement. For those who have been here and returned to the normalcy or ‘new normalcy’ or life post-event, you know exactly what Luther is saying. Even when losing the entirety of our material possessions, as so many in this area have…or perhaps I should say especially when losing our possessions, we can answer in faith Luther’s rhetorical question, “If I must trust God for my very life and limb, why should I worry about how I’m going to find nourishment from day to day?” The answer, of course, is quite simply this…in my own words:

I should not worry. My God, who provides us life and existence from moment to moment will not fail to provide us everything we need. His provision may not come in ways we expect, ways we are accustomed to, or ways that we necessarily enjoy, but his provision will come. Of these things we can be sure. He has proven himself faithful time and time again.

Thanks be to God for his great faithfulness, mercy, and grace in Christ Jesus!